The present invention described herein is related generally to a concrete wall forming system for use in primarily residential and light commercial building construction. More particularly, the present invention is related to prefabricated monolithic footing and wall forming members or panels which are relatively light weight for manageability, but rigidly constructed and gang formed or interconnected to form complete integral footing and wall forming units which are substantially self-straightening and non-sagging.
Perhaps the greatest cost in new home construction is the cost of labor. The cost of labor is generally based upon an estimation of the time required to complete a given job. Therefore, there exists a continuing desire to lessen the time required for performing such work, and thereby increase the efficiency of the operation. Concrete contractors continually struggle with this problem because of the extreme difficulty which they encounter in trying to find and keep personnel that are capable of lifting and handling concrete forms in excess of 80 pounds on a daily basis, in adverse conditions. The physical wear on the personnel causes slowdowns in production as well as a relatively high rate of turnover in personnel, which in turn leads to an inefficient operation. Thus, concrete contractors are continually seeking methods by which the heavy physical labor involved in this work may be lessened.
When a poured concrete foundation for a home or other building is being constructed, a substantial amount of time and heavy physical labor is generally required for assembling footing form members, and thereafter assembling the foundation wall forming members which rest upon the concrete footings that have been previously formed and poured. Frequently, the footing forms and wall forming panels are separately constructed on the job site, by hand, and often times by separate contractors. Because each contractor will generally do its own layout work, more time is consumed and the owner of the building consequently pays twice for the same layout work.
Also, hand assembled concrete forms require numerous braces and support members to hold the same in an aligned upright position to receive the concrete therebetween. Such hand assembled wall forming panels frequently have surface irregularities and are constructed such that pillowing (outward bowing of inner surface panel) and alignment problems may occur. All of the above, along with the heavy physical labor involved, greatly increases the necessary time and labor cost involved in constructing the foundation of such a building.
Alternatively, once the conventional footing forms are assembled and the concrete footings are poured, the foundation walls may be hand assembled by laying concrete blocks, which also requires a substantial amount of time and heavy physical labor. In fact, this is still the most prevalent method of constructing foundation walls in the residental housing industry.
The substantial amount of time and heavy physical labor involved with either of the above methods has led the construction industry to seek new methods of constructing such footings and foundation walls which are less physically taxing, more efficient, and less costly. For example, the Steel-Ply form system, which was developed by Symons Corporation, consists of a plurality of prefabricated 2'.times.8' wall forming panels that are uniform and symmetrical in construction, and can be hand assembled on-site, or gang formed into larger wall forming units which are set in place and stripped via the use of a crane.
The advent of the Steel-Ply wall forming system reduced the amount of time necessary in constructing poured foundation walls, once the footings were properly constructed. However, such a system still requires additional time and labor to assemble the footing forms and pour the concrete footings prior to the assembly and setting of the prefabricated wall forming panels. Such footing forms must also be disassembled separately, which also adds additional cost to a project. Additionally, whether such Steel-Ply panels are hand assembled on-site or ganged formed, additional walers and strongbacks must be secured across the backside thereof in order to gain proper alignment of such panels so as to ensure that the resulting poured concrete wall is straight within the required specification therefor. For such reasons, it can be seen that costly time and heavy physical labor is still required both for assembly and disassembly of the required footing forms, and for assembly and disassembly of the interconnected panels and their required walers and strongbacks which are used to properly align the interconnected panels.
There have also been other wall forming systems developed in the past which allow the footings and foundation walls to be poured simultaneously. However, such conventional wall forming systems require on-site hand assembly which, as already pointed out, is extremely time consuming and labor intensive. In addition, the footing forms for such a system support the wall forming panels, and are therefore generally reinforced by interconnecting members which extend between opposing footing forms, and are ultimately buried within the footings once the concrete hardens. This creates substantial material waste and makes such forming systems more difficult to disassemble and strip once the foundation walls have hardened. This, of course, again increases the time, labor and cost involved in the construction of foundation walls, which is undesirable.
From the above, it can be seen that there is a definite need in the building industry, and particularly in new home construction, for a more efficient, less costly means of constructing the necessary footings and foundation walls for housing projects. More particularly, there is a distinct need for a wall forming system which has relatively light-weight prefabricated wall forming panels that include means for monolithically forming associated footings of desired width. Such panels must be constructed uniformally and symmetrically so as to be capable of being gang formed for setting in position or stripped as an integral monolithic footing and wall forming unit, and must be rigidly constructed and interconnected in such manner as to be self-straightening and non-sagging, without the need for additional walers and strongbacks. Such panels must support the footing forming members attached thereto so that no wasteful interconnecting members between opposing footing forms are necessary, thereby allowing such monolithic footing and wall forming units to be stripped as an integral one-piece structure. These advantages and more are provided by my new wall forming system, which is described and shown in more detail hereinafter.